John O'Grady | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Patrick O'Grady (1907-10-09)9 October 1907 Waverley, New South Wales, Australia |
| Died | 14 January 1981(1981-01-14) (aged 73)[1] Oatley, New South Wales, Australia |
| Pen name | Nino Culotta |
| Occupation | Novelist, poet |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Genre | Satire |
| Notable works | They're a Weird Mob The Integrated Adjective |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 4, including John O'Grady, Jnr |
| Relatives | Frank O'Grady (brother) |
John Patrick O'Grady (9 October 1907 – 14 January 1981) was an Australianwriter. His works include the comic novelThey're a Weird Mob (1957) using thepen nameNino Culotta and the poemThe Integrated Adjective, sometimes known asTumba-bloody-rumba.
O'Grady was born in the Sydney suburb ofWaverley as the eldest of eight children to John Edward O'Grady, a Department of Lands clerk and editor of theAgricultural Gazette of New South Wales, and Margaret Gleeson, both of whom were from Victoria and of Irish descent. When he was a child his father quit his Department of Lands job and moved the family to a farm on thePeel River nearTamworth.[2][3] Educated by his father until the age of twelve, his first formal schooling was atSt Stanislaus' College inBathurst, which his father had previously attended. He had originally planned to do a medical degree but drought forced his family to leave the land and made this impossible, so he wound up graduating from theUniversity of Sydney with a degree in pharmacy.[2][3] He worked as a pharmacist in Sydney andBallina, before quitting the business in 1936 to become a medical officer in coastal passenger steamers and a travelling salesman for a pharmaceutical importer. From 1942 to 1950 he was in theRoyal Australian Army Medical Corps, serving in Victoria, New South Wales, and on the hospital shipManunda. He had another stint as a pharmacist from 1950 to 1954, before becoming a labourer and pharmacy teacher for the New Zealand government in Samoa (then Western Samoa). By this stage he had written short stories, plays, and poems, occasionally having work published inThe Bulletin magazine. He completed his most famous work,They're a Weird Mob (1957), in New Zealand while waiting for the job to be organised .[2][3] He died in 1981 at his home inOatley and was cremated.[2]
O'Grady wrote under a variety ofpseudonyms, most famously as Nino Culotta for his booksThey're a Weird Mob,Cop This Lot,Gone Fishin ', andGone Gougin'. Other examples includeNo Kava For Johnny, which is published under O'Grady's name, but contains a preface from the author claiming that the book had in fact been written by the eponymous character, Johnny.
O'Grady also wrote the television playLight Me a Lucifer.[4]
He was married to Lorna Maria Schreiber from 1930 to 1941 (with whom he had three sons), Margaret (Meg) Elizabeth Lockey from 1941 to 1950 (with whom he had a daughter), and Mary (Molly) Winefriede Carroll from 1952 until his death.[2] One of his sons, John O'Grady, Jnr, was at one point the head of situation comedy at theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation[5] and winner of the 1987 Television Drama Award forABC TV seriesMother and Son presented by theAustralian Human Rights Commission.[6] One of O'Grady's brothers, Frank, was also an author and publishedThe Golden Valley (1955),Goonoo Goonoo (1956) andHanging Rock (1957); all published byCassell. While John O'Grady's novels were light satirical works, Frank O'Grady wrote pioneering sagas set in western New South Wales.[7]
O'Grady's numerous works were originally published in hardback byUre Smith with comic illustrations; many have frequently been re-issued by other publishing houses, generally facsimile editions in paperback.
Aussie Etiket was translated into Japanese asŌsutoraria-ryū Echiketto: Oretachi Dattara Kōsuru Ne (Tōkyō : Kindai Bungeisha, 1993)
A collection of the papers of O'Grady, ranging from 1942 to 1986, are available in manuscript form at theNational Library of Australia, Canberra.[8]
